There is no way the girls 2A championship game can be a rematch for the third consecutive year. Not because the two teams aren't capable, but because of seeding. North and South Sevier will most likely meet in the semifinals this year.
North Sevier and South Sevier have met to decide the title the last two seasons, with each getting a win — North Sevier won the game in 2006 and South Sevier took it in 2007. For much of this season, it appeared that South Sevier was going to run away with the crown. That is, until North Sevier humbled the then No.1-ranked Rams, 56-29 a couple of weeks ago. The win brought the Wolves a tremendous amount of confidence, but coach Lexa Larson and her players know that game doesn't mean anything with the playoffs getting underway today.
"We definitely gained confidence by beating them, but they had a bad shooting night and we had a good shooting night," said Larson. "We outplayed them, but we don't expect it to be that way all the time. We know it was just one game. We hadn't beaten them in a while, so it gave us some confidence. A lot of it is mental, but we still know that we have to get it done the next few days for it to really mean much."
North Sevier has been one of the top programs in the classification the past few years, so it is not that surprising that the Wolves are one of the favored teams coming into the tournament. How they have progressed all year, however, has been a little bit of a shocker.
"We have come a long, long way since the beginning of the year," said Larson. "We had seven seniors, but it took a while to work out where everyone would fit in and what their roles would be. It took until about halfway through the region season to really find our way, and then the South Sevier game was kind of the capper."
Expect North and South Sevier to meet to see which team gets a shot at its second title in three years. With four of the top-5 ranked teams in the lower bracket, Richfield appears to have the easiest path to the finals from the top bracket.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com